false listing Archives

The following review is about this “Beach Town House” property in Port Macquarie NSW Australia: https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/4769377?s=ik7rIcBI

Firstly this is not a beach townhouse – this place is streets back from the beach and the bedroom overlooks rooftops. There are 15 steep steps upstairs so if you have any physical problems this will challenge you. The advertised site said breakfast. The advertised site says cleaning between guests, this never happened. In fact I am not sure the old sheets I slept in were clean and I certainly couldn’t touch the brown shredded towel left at the end of my bed. I was in the third room that was the junk room where family photos, old bookcases, stuffed toys etc., were as well as her winter wardrobe in the cupboard so I had no place to hang or put anything. My clothes were on the floor. The whole place, was filthy mold in bathroom/shower, pulled back beige seat cushions on outside furniture that were black with mold.

As the host didn’t live there, I wrote within 24 hours to her to let her know that I was dissatisfied and that I would like her to cancel my stay as this would ensure the 100% rebate. She rebuffed by saying I was the only person to ever complain and delayed my request. I wrote again and again and I kept getting put off such as oh the internet doesn’t work, I am working, etc., this is too hard. I told her to ring airbnb and they would walk her through it. I called airbnb and got contradicting policy procedures so I needed the host to cancel the booking. Ultimately airbnb had to call her and then she agreed to cancel. I received a text from her at 5pm on the third day of 12 telling me I was a nasty person and to leave her house immediately. Which I did.

Initially she agreed to book me into the more expensive room and I paid my money only then to be told that it was already booked privately and I could take the less expensive and she would reimburse me $100 but in fact the difference was $144.

I personally didn’t have a good experience and would never recommend this place.

Booked a house in Fish Hoek, Cape Town from one Sonny Naidoo. In his listing he claimed the property had 2 bedrooms and a steep flight of stairs. The picture in his listing was of a flight of stairs that looked fine – however when I got to the address I found that the picture was taken in front of another property all together. The actual house had multiple flights of steep stairs to climb in order to reach it. Upon the climb I found that the house actually didn’t have a second bedroom, only a sort of pseudo loft in the kitchen accessible only by climbing a ladder. No safety gate of any sort on the platform either, making it very unsafe for children (listing claimed to be child friendly) AIRBNB support told me the following: “I’ve reviewed the video Joel and while I understand that the staircase shown was not the same as the one you actually climb to the listing but the whole point of the picture was to show the view. It was stated in the description that there was a steep climb and that you would need to be able bodied but that is why porters were supplied. At this point as the description covered the basis of the fact there was a steep climb I would be unable to process a refund for the reservation besides what I have already given.” So – it seems a host can post a picture of another property – inferring that it is the actual property, and airbnb doesn’t care. A host can claim 2 bedrooms, while not describing it accurately, and AIRBNB doesn’t care. I’ve attached a screenshot taken from the listing, showing the staircase from a different property – a clear misdirection – then the actual listing and pictures of the ACTUAL climb property taken by myself.

Tag Archives: false listing

Fraudulent Airbnb Listing in Macquarie NSW Australia

Airbnb Doesn’t Care if Hosts Lie and Mislead Guests